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Hotel Transylvania 2
Hotel Transylvania 2 takes place seven years after the first film, with the hotel now open to human guests. Mavis and Johnny have a young son named Dennis, whose lack of any vampire abilities worries his grandfather Dracula. When Mavis and Johnny go on a visit to Johnny's parents, Dracula calls his friends to help him make Dennis a vampire. However, an unexpected visit from Dracula's old-school human-hating father, Vlad, soon turns things upside-down. Original voices from the first film—Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon—returned for the sequel, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray. New additions to the cast include Mel Brooks as Count Dracula's father, Vlad; Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as Jonathan's parents, Mike and Linda; and Asher Blinkoff as Mavis and Johnny's half-human/half-vampire son, Dennis. The film was released on September 25, 2015, by Columbia Pictures. Despite mixed reviews, Hotel Transylvania 2 set a new box office record for the biggest opening weekend in September, with a weekend gross of $48.5 million. Plot A short time after the first film, Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her husband Johnny (Andy Samberg) are married, with the approval of her father Dracula (Adam Sandler). A year later, they have a son named Dennis (Asher Blinkoff), who befriends Wayne's werewolf pup daughter Winnie (Sadie Sandler), who has a strong crush on him. Nearing his fifth birthday, Dennis has yet to grow his fangs, which worries Drac that his grandson might not gain vampire powers. Noticing the dangers of Transylvania, Mavis starts to consider raising Dennis where Johnny grew up, much to Drac's disapproval. By Drac's suggestion, Mavis and Johnny travel to California to visit the in-laws, Mike (Nick Offerman) and Linda (Megan Mullally), leaving Drac to babysit Dennis. Drac enlists his friends, Frank (Kevin James), Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), Murray the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) and Blobby the Blob (Jonny Solomon) to help train Dennis to become a monster, to no avail. Drac takes Dennis to a summer camp where he learned to hone his vampire abilities, with no results. Desperate, Drac hurls Dennis from a tall, unstable tower to pressure his transformation into a bat, but rescues him at the last second. The stunt is filmed by the campers and uploaded to the internet, which eventually reaches Mavis and Johnny who hurry back to Transylvania. Mavis angrily scolds her father for endangering Dennis and his inability to accept that he is human, declaring that she will move out of the hotel after Dennis’ fifth birthday. Mavis invites Vlad (Mel Brooks), her grandfather and Drac’s father, to Dennis’ birthday party. As Vlad is much worse than he was when it comes to humans, Drac has the partygoers disguised as monsters. Vlad arrives with his monstrous bat-like servant Bela (Rob Riggle) and meets his great-grandson. He believes that fear will cause Dennis’ fangs to sprout and manipulates a stage performer into scaring Dennis, but Drac shields his grandson in the last moment and exposes the deception to Vlad, who is outraged that Drac has accepted humans as guests in his hotel. Mavis is angered by her grandfather’s treachery and while the family quarrels, Dennis sadly flees the hotel and enters the forest with Winnie in tow, but they are attacked by Bela and the rest of Vlad's minions. When Bela injures Winnie, Dennis instantly grows his fangs and his vampire abilities manifest. Drac, Mavis and Dennis team up to defeat the bat-like minions. Bela attempts to kill Johnny in revenge, but Vlad appears with a change of heart where he shrinks his former servant to a harmless size and the Werewolf Kids drive him away. With Dennis still half vampire, Mavis decides to continue raising her son in Transylvania and the party resumes. Cast *Adam Sandler as Count Dracula, the owner and hotel manager of Hotel Transylvania, and Mavis' father. *Selena Gomez as Mavis, Dracula's "teenage" vampire daughter. *Andy Samberg as Jonathan ("Johnnystein") *Mel Brooks as Vlad, Dracula's father and Mavis' Grandfather. *David Spade as Griffin the Invisible Man, one of Dracula's best friends. *Keegan-Michael Key as Murray, the Mummy *Kevin James as Frank *Steve Buscemi as Wayne *Fran Drescher as Eunice *Asher Blinkoff as Dennis *Megan Mullally as Linda Loughran *Nick Offerman as Mike Loughran *Robert Smigel as Marty, Harry Three-Eyes, Navigator *Chris Kattan as Kakie the Cake Monster *Sadie Sandler as Winnie *Jonny Solomon as Blobby *Rob Riggle as Bela *Sunny Sandler as Baby Dennis, Vampire Kid *Jon Lovitz as Erik *Rose Abdoo as Ticket Agent *Luenell as Shrunken Heads *Jared Sandler as Tourist Driver *Melissa Sturm as Caren Jogger #1, Tourist Passenger *Jennifer Lyter as Jogger #2 *Paul Brittain as Pandragora *Chris Parnell as Fly *Doug Dale as Kal *Ethan Smigel as Troy *Roey Smigel as Yoga Monster Kid *Allen Covert as Candle Cake Monster *Aaron LaPlante, Allen Zyler, Andre Robinson, Audrey Wasilewski, Ava Acres, Ava Tartakovsky, Brian T. Delaney, Bridget Hoffman, Caitlin McKenna, Carter Hastings, Carter Sand, Cole Sand, David Cowgill, Debra Wilson, Eva Bella, Fred Tatasciore, Grant George, Gunnar Sizemore, Hunter Maki, Jackie Gonneau, Jacob Tartakovsky, Jaeden Bettencourt, Jess Harnell, Jessica Gee, Jim Wise, Joe Sanfelippo, Kari Wahlgren, Kerry Gutierrez, Kirk Thornton, La'ren Kimble, Laurel Carini, Lex Lang, Lilah Tartakovsky, Logan Kishi, Lynnanne Zager, Matthew Wolf, Megan Richie, Meira Blinkoff, Melendy Britt, Mia Sinclair Jenness, Michael Leon Wooley, Mona Marshall, Nicholas Guest, Patrick Harpin, Rachel Saydak, Steve Apostolina, Steve Blum, Todd Haberkorn, Wilber Zaldivar as Additional Voices Production Genndy Tartakovsky, the director of the film, commented in October 2012 the possibility of the sequel: "Everyone is talking about it, but we haven't started writing it. There are a lot of fun ideas we could totally play with. It's a ripe world."[48] On November 9, 2012, it was announced that a sequel has been greenlit, and is set for release on September 25, 2015. Tartakovsky will return for the sequel, even though he originally was too busy due to his developing an adaptation of Popeye.[7] Critical reception Hotel Transylvania 2 has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 51%, based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's consensus states: "Hotel Transylvania 2 is marginally better than the original, which may or may not be enough of a recommendation to watch 89 minutes of corny, colorfully animated gags from Adam Sandler and company." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. Max Nicholson of IGN awarded it a score of 6.5 out of 10, saying "While Genndy Tartakovsky's animation is top-notch, Hotel Transylvania 2 doesn't live up to the first monster mash." Nick Schager of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "Its plot comes across as just a rickety skeleton designed to prop up Sandler and company's litany of cornball punchlines and gags, only a few of which cleverly play off of these characters' iconography" Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying "Whereas the jokes in the Grown Ups series feel reactionary and bullying, the family-friendly Hotel Transylvania gags instead come off as clever and humane, even when they're making fun of helicopter moms and lawsuit-sensitive summer camps." Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "Great movies like ParaNorman and Frankenweenie showed the laughs you could get out of funny fiends; Hotel Transylvania 2 just digs up a few corny gags." Bruce Demara of the Toronto Star gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "While the first Hotel Trans had humour for both younger and older audiences, this one will likely fall short in its appeal to adults, although there's plenty for the little monsters to enjoy." Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film one out of four stars, saying "Hotel Transylvania 2 is an unfortunate throwback to about 20 years ago, when animated movies were more widely accepted as cinematic babysitters." Sandie Angulo Chen of The Washington Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Tartakovsky hasn't created the sort of sequel that eclipses the original, but then again the original wasn't exactly Toy Story or How to Train Your Dragon." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+, saying "It's an episodic, energetically animated gag factory from the pen of Adam Sandler, and while it's the best screenplay to bear his name in years, it also warps some overfamiliar family-movie concerns until they become unavoidable in their ickiness." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying "This time around, greater attention has been paid to story and character development (while scaling back on all the sight gags) and the substantial results give the ample voice cast and returning director Genndy Tartakovsky more to sink their teeth into, with pleasing results." Josh Kupecki of The Austin Chronicle gave the film one out of five stars, saying "Channeling your inner child, you may find solace in Hotel Transylvania 2, but in the end it has no bite, doing continued disservice to the Universal monsters it scabs out, and adding another soiled feather to Sandler’s cap of mediocrity." Sequel Michelle Murdocca, the film's producer, said before the film's release that the studio was "talking about number 3 and moving forward and taking the franchise to the next level," but that she and director Genndy Tartakovsky will not return, since they are working on Tartakovsky's Can You Imagine? Gallery Trivia *''Hotel Transylvania'' is the fourth Sony Pictures Animation film to become a franchise, after Open Season, The Smurfs and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. *The first Sony Pictures Animation film to have the new Sony logo before Columbia Pictures and with the new Sony byline "a Sony Company". *This is the 7th Sony Pictures Animation film to be produced in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after The Smurfs 2, Hotel Transylvania, Arthur Christmas, The Smurfs, Surf's Up, and Open Season. References Category:Hotel Transylvania Category:Movies Category:Sequels Category:PG-rated